Why twins could be main rivals to Sky at the Tour de France

Vuelta victory will give Simon huge confidence while Adam can also push on and compete

You can say what you want about the depth of quality at this year’s Vuelta a Espana – the fact that big-name riders such as Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Tom Dumoulin were missing – that was still an exceptional win by Simon Yates. It puts him right up there in the top rung of general classification contenders heading into the next couple of seasons.

Can he now go on to win the biggest one of the lot: the Tour de France? That is another step up again because you have the best guys in the world all there at their very best. But this victory will give him huge confidence.

The Vuelta is not an easy race to win, believe me. It took Froome long enough to knock it off.

The type of race it is, coming at the end of the season, when many riders are on their knees. The fact that the race is not as controlled as the Tour de France, the racing is more instinctive. Then there is the parcours, which is nearly always exceptionally difficult.

This one was no exception. We had summit finishes even in the first week of the race.

Ok, they were small mountains. But it has been a really difficult race, with short, aggressive stages, such as the one on Saturday.

Yates managed his effort so well. After his collapse at the Giro d’italia there were inevitably question marks but he and his team, Mitchelton-scott, clearly learnt their lessons.

They played things much more conservatively this time, holding Yates back. The way he rides, that is difficult because he likes to ride on feeling. But he will have gained a huge amount of confidence after seeing this approach come off.

One of the most pleasing things about this race was the fact that we saw further signs of a new generation of grand tour rider emerge.

Enric Mas, Miguel Angel Lopez, Richard Carapaz. And not forgetting Adam Yates, of course. This has been a tough season for him, but he has finished fourth at the Tour de France already. We know he is capable of doing well in three-week grand tours. With Simon now doing well he has to push on and do better and I think he will. There is a good battle between the brothers.

Never mind Sky’s riders fighting each other for the yellow jersey, it

After his collapse at the Giro there were questions, but Yates learnt his lesson

is not beyond the realms of possibility that we will see the Yates twins battling each other for Tour success in the coming years.

Who knows how Froome is going to compete? We saw this year he was not as strong as he has been in previous years.

Vincenzo Nibali, Alejandro Valverde, Thomas…they are all in their 30s. Valverde definitely looked his age these past couple of days.

A lot will depend on the routes they choose. If they have a Tour where there is not a huge amount of flat time trials, or even a mountain TT, then I think the Yates twins can certainly compete. More importantly, so do they.